Colonial us

It has been a very colonial beginning to our school year! A few others ladies and I decided to make our own little Classical Conversations (CC) co-op at my house rather than shell out the big bucks to do it with the official one. We meet every other week and the kids (five actually doing school and two babies) have a blast! This year CC is focusing on American history, which worked out well with our family vacation to Williamsburg. I made Samy a very simple colonial dress to help her get into it a little more. We read some books about the time period too, but they still preferred climbing trees and playing in the dirt to seeing all the cool historic buildings :) Oh well! We also spent some time at the pool, mini golfing, ice cream eating, and (the kids favorite part) watching Episodes 1 and 2 of Star Wars that we borrowed from friends :) I, on the other hand, LOVED Williamsburg and would love to go every year! They had this fun game called RevQuest where they give you a set of instructions when you check in and special bandannas to wear. You meet your secret informant who starts you off on your secret mission and tells you to beware of spies (anyone not wearing the same color blue as the bandanna). Isaac and Samy liked the secret spy part and kept Daddy from getting us thrown in jail when someone started asking him questions related to our secret mission. Isaac said, "He's a spy, Dad! Stop talking to him!" You are given clues and have to find answers around Williamsburg and then text answers to get the next clue and if you are successful in saving the person from danger by figuring out the whole message then you get a little coin with the year and Colonial Williamsburg on it. It was so much fun, though the clues were way over our kids' heads. I sure enjoyed it :) Well, we completed our mission a little after the time of the ceremony where you receive your coin (you find out the secret time and place when you finish the game), and we were leaving the next morning, which was a big bummer! But God was so kind to allow us to see our "secret informant" we had met that morning and I asked her if it was possible to get the little prize for the kids. She was so kind and met us behind a building and went through the whole thing with us about the mission and giving us all our coins. It was great!

And then we also took a field trip with lots of friends to a colonial farm nearby in late September. We got to card and spin wool, crush grain, make candles by dipping wicks into beeswax, play some games from the time period, and then explore the farm while talking with a farmer's wife (very in character!). We even pulled weeds in the garden :)